Dr Theodoor (Theo) van den Handel is Right to Care’s Provincial Programme Manager for the Western Cape.
Theo joined Right to Care as a part-time consultant at the Themba Lethu Clinic (Helen Joseph Hospital) in 2009. Later that year, he joined Right to Care on a fulltime basis at the head office and became the Provincial Programme Manager in the Western Cape. As provincial manager of the Western Cape, he fulfils the role of Clinical Mentor for Right to Care in two supported districts in the Western Cape.
Theo qualified at Wits University in 1988. His internship was spent at the Johannesburg General Hospital, after which he did his military service. Theo worked at Medical Training Command in Pretoria and was involved in the training of the OPS Medics.
In 1992, he joined a general medical practice in Sandton where he worked for 18 years. From 1992 to 2001, with his partners in the general practice, Theo was involved in the consulting and running of the Sandton and Morningside Medi-Clinic Casualty departments and, as such, practiced emergency medicine for nine years. After the senior partner retirement from the practice in 1998, he took over the management and running of the practice.
Recently, Theo has worked in Themba Lethu Clinic and Rahema Moosa Hospital, seeing and treating HIV infected and exposed patients.
In 2011, he launched the George Branch (Garden Route) of the HIV Clinicians Society in the Western Cape and he is also the head of the Society.
Theo has a Diploma in HIV Management from the Collage of Medicine and has completed the Adult HIV management and the Paediatric HIV Management courses for clinicians. Theo is also co-author for HIV in the Medical Chronicle, a monthly publication.